Trump, Musk, And Unions Go To War Over New Federal Worker Accountability Requirements

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Last Updated on: 24th February 2025, 07:31 am

It’s been quite a month for unions — they’ve been rallying existing members and signing up new ones. They’ve been in the courts, refusing to accept the Trump administration’s attempts to decimate contractually-guaranteed protections. Labor unions have sued to try to stop the mass firings, under which tens of thousands of federal workers have been told they no longer have a job, all part of the alleged efficiency moves underway by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). As right-wing fanatic Elon Musk and unions battle it out, more and more workers are seeking out collective bargaining protections.

Musk posted an ultimatum on Saturday afternoon on the social media space X, which he owns and runs.

“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

Musk’s decree came on Saturday after Trump urged Musk to be “more aggressive” in cutting the government. “Will do, Mr. President,” Musk replied.

Trump has maintained that Musk is only a presidential advisor with no real authority.

New FBI Director Kash Patel sent a message to the FBI workforce that the agency will review its own processes, and employees should hold off on responding to the email, as learned confirmed by NPR. Officials at the State Department, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of the Navy have stood their proverbial ground, asserting their rights to review their workers and instructing them not to respond to Musk’s demand.

The emails come as Trump, Musk, and unions wrangle over whether the administration has authority to aggressively fire government workers. Last week, in response to the mass firings of probationary employees, labor unions sued the Trump administration, claiming the Office of Personnel Management has no authority to manage employees of federal agencies other than its own.

“It’s stressful because you have probationary people that are learning their job, and they’re getting emails with no notice that they’re terminated, just ‘Goodbye’,” said Jaclyn Imperati, an AFGE member who works at the Executive Office of Immigration Review in New York City. Imperati said that people are turning to the union due to the threats. “We doubled our membership in our building the day that all this started happening.”

Musk and Unions — A Reach into Nearly Every Federal Department

Federal employee union members have been speaking out, rallying, and suing, as agency after agency has been hit by Elon Musk’s DOGE — a private unaccountable entity which has been demanding and getting access to all government records. Meanwhile, most of Musk’s claims of fraud have been debunked as exaggeration, misunderstanding of how departments actually work, or out-and-out disinformation.

Federal workers called foul at over 30 “Save our Services” rallies around the country, including in New York, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Denver, Boston, Boise, Chattanooga, and Chicago.

At many agencies, workers report they were put on “administrative leave” in letters that said the worker’s “ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the agency’s current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment at the agency.” The letter was boilerplate — workers received them “even when they had superb evaluations.” Such choices of language are typically designed to avoid lawsuits by claiming that the firings were for cause. However, some workers said the letters didn’t even include their names, instead containing fields that said “firstname” and “lastname.”

No longer are workers seen as individuals contributing to the collective good of US society; instead, they are a financial burden, no more, no less.

Workers protesting included those fired, or under threat, at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the IRS, Social Security, the Veterans Administration, and numerous other agencies that provide services that range from running national parks to warning residents about impending floods.

The Trump administration’s mass firings of federal workers and evisceration of federal funding continued this week at the Federal Housing Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Science Foundation, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and the Administration for Children and Families, which is responsible for the Head Start program, which offers early childhood education and nutrition services for low income families.

On top of the firings, no one is being hired to fill existing vacancies. “Veterans Affairs, the EPA, the Department of Justice, there’s a hiring freeze across the government,” said American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) staffer Timothy McLaughlin. He said there were already 50,000 vacancies in the VA system. “There’ve been thousands of probationary employees and potential hires who have been told, you’re not coming, we’re retracting our offers,” said McLaughlin. “I’ve gotten calls from people crying. This is ruining people’s lives.”

While some of Musk’s and Trump’s actions are being held up in court, others are being rescinded as constituents fight back. Some workers who were told their jobs no longer existed have later been instructed to return to the job.

Senator Angus King (I-ME) reminded US citizens that the reason the framers designed the US Constitution the way they did was that they were afraid of concentrated power.

“It’s the most serious assault on the very structure of our Constitution, which is designed to protect our freedoms and liberty, in the history of this country. It is a constitutional crisis… I’m just waiting for this whole body to stand up and say no, no, we don’t do it this way. We don’t do it this way. We do things constitutionally. That’s what the framers intended. They didn’t intend to have an efficient dictatorship, and that’s what we’re headed for…. We’ve got to wake up, protect this institution, but much more importantly protect the people of the United States of America.”

Final Thoughts about Trump, Musk, and Unions

Unions around the country have been speaking out about workers’ rights under the recent federal upheavals.

AFSCME says that investing in our nation’s transportation is essential for maintaining strong communities and a vibrant economy, and it is absurd to re-direct taxpayer dollars away from our communities because of arbitrary standards such as marriage and birth rates.

The Alliance for Retired Americans released a statement saying that having someone who doesn’t even know how Medicare and Medicaid operate “go wild” with seniors’ health care is not a good idea. AFT reminds its members that they should send a letter to members of Congress to urge the president to reinstate the protection of schools, hospitals, and churches against ICE.

The American Postal Workers released an opinion that warns that the USPS plan to change service standards would result in significant downgrades in service, particularly affecting rural America, and that any cost savings associated with the changes may not be worth the serious impacts to the country’s mail service.

Even the Actors’ Equity is standing with the Chippendales Dancers and demanding management stop their union-busting tactics.

And union workers across the US sent their condolences to their union family and all families who lost loved ones in recent flight crashes.

Featured image: “You’re Fired” by PhotosByDavid is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.